TOUR SHIRT WALKTHROUGH - Part 7 - Printing

[upperhandprinting]

I used a bit of spray tack on the pallet and put my shirt on. I always like to test print on the pallet that I set my off contact on. It takes out another variable. The settings should translate to the other pallets, but for now I want to make sure I have it set up correctly and to register the job completely. When I'm doing the test print, I have my flash dryer on but not over the pallet. It's just set off to the side.

I flood and stroke my white underbase. I lift up the screen to see how the halftones are printing and do another flood and stroke if need be. You have to be careful doing this because you can "dirty" up the substrate side of your screen with ink that will make the image look blurry. The white looks good so I swing the pallet near my flash dryer, walk over, flash dry it and then move the flash dryer back out of the way.

The gray layer is next and I pull the screen down and line it up. I first use the registration squares I printed, but when it comes down to it, I'm looking all over the image to make sure it's lined up correctly. I line up the squares and tighten the screen in the print head, then as I'm looking at the entire image, I'm using the micro-reg to make those adjustments. Once I feel like its lined up, I print the gray on top of the white. I do the same thing and check to see how it's printing. The main thing I'm checking for is that the entire image that should print is printing. I don't want to be missing a spot and have it show up half way through the run. Just compare your screen to your shirt and they should match. Then it's back to my flash dryer again.

From there on its repeating the same procedure for every other screen. Print, check, flash. Once it's done I will put it through the oven and look over the entire thing to make sure I like how it's coming out and that the registration is good.

I don't start the run quite yet. What I like to do is do another test print, but this time do it quickly without checking it. I literally print, flash, print, flash. . . Until its done and then put it through the oven. Sometimes when you're doing a test print and staring at it every 4 seconds you can deceive yourself and think something looks right when it isn't. So I do a print like I would during the run and then only look at it when it's completely done. If I like the result, I start with the run. If not, I make adjustments and do another quick test until I like the result.

With this particular project, the registration looked good, but it seemed the colors were off. It looked as though we were printing a shirt that should glow in the dark. All of the colors were very vibrant and just plain too much. So we did another test print. My idea was to completely skip the underbase. I started right in with my gray, then red, yellow, and finally orange. When the test came out, it looked a lot better, but I could tell part of the logo wasn't printing correctly. The yellow printer was having trouble printing the halftones.
So I did another test print and focused on that area. I did a normal flood and stroke on the yellow printer, but then did a flood and push stroke over the logo. Once I put that through the oven and checked it, we were finally satisfied with the result and ready to start the run.

If you haven't watched Jonathan's video on printing "flow", I suggest you do if you are getting ready for a long run. Picture my 6-6 printer as a clock. If I'm standing at the 6 o'clock position and facing the machine printing, I have my flash dryer at the second station to my right. Think of it as being at 2 o'clock. My oven is directly to my right and a basket is at the other end to catch the shirts. I have shirts laid out to my left all facing the same way and in order of sizes from small to 3X. My can of spray tack is sitting right there as well.

When I'm loading the shirt, it's all about feel and repetition. I find it harder to load 3X shirts than it is mediums, but my process is the same. I pull it all the way on the pallet, grab the seam where the sleeve meets the shoulder and pull it back as evenly as I can so it stays parallel to the pallet. Every 3 rotations I will use more spray tack and the 1st shirt after that is always a bit stiffer to move, but again, you'll get in to a rhythm and you'll be able to "feel" when it's right.

Because I'm not as fast as I would like to be, I give myself a head start. I put a shirt on my 1st pallet, print my gray, and rotate. Load the 2nd pallet, print my gray and rotate. I will actually load and print all 6 stations of my press when I'm starting a run. Then I will move my flash dryer into its 2 o'clock position to start flashing curing the shirts. I will stand there and let the 1st shirt flash, then rotate. Let the 2nd flash, and rotate. When the 1st shirt gets back to me, then I feel like I have the timing down and I'm ready to roll with it. I print the red on the 1st shirt while the 5th shirt is under the flash. Then I rotate. Print red on the 2nd shirt while the 6th is under the flash. At this point, all of the shirts have been loaded, printed with the gray and flashed. I have also printed the first two shirts with the second color, red.

From this point on its a cycle. While I print the 3rd shirt with the red, the 1st shirt is under the flash. Once the 1st shirt gets back to me, I begin printing the yellow while another is under the flash. Only when you get to the 4th color do things change a bit.

When the 1st shirt gets back to me and I put on the last color, orange, do I do anything other than print and rotate. Here is where you need to move quickly. Once the 1st shirt gets to you, you have to print the last color, take the shirt off and place it on the oven belt, load a new shirt, swing your print heads and print the 1st color and then you can rotate your pallet. As you can see, depending on your speed, that's a lot to do all while that one shirt is under the flash. If you get caught up on one spot and something happens, don't be afraid to swing your pallet a bit off from its locked position. That will pull the shirt out from under the flash and give you extra time to do what you need to do. When you're ready, put it back in its locked 6 o'clock position and continue.

I begin to develop and ebb and flow when I'm doing these types of jobs. I do my head start and get a feel for the timing. Then it's pretty relaxing as I print the 2nd and 3rd colors. Then it's fast paced printing and loading/unloading shirts. But once that's done it's rotation of all 6, it's back to being relaxed and printing the 2nd and 3rd colors again. I get in to a flow and almost quit thinking and my body takes over and goes through the motions.

As I'm printing, I do keep an eye on the registration. On this job, the orange screen wanted to keep moving a bit on me. With it being the last color to print it was important to keep it in line. I think I adjusted it 2 times during the run. When that happens, I move the flash dryer out of position, fix it just by sight, move the flash dryer back and continue printing.

When it's all said and done, I've got 2 tubs full of shirts that with any luck, someone will want to buy.


The Walkthrough continues with a quick note under "Using plastisol inks".

[Catspit Productions]

Wow! This is a very detailed and direct explanation of your printing process. You are doing very well and I can see you learned a lot from my videos. That makes me happy.

Excellent write up. I don’t think I have much I could add here except thank you very much for the post.

[ApeShirt]

Nice writeup. Now I wish I had more than a 4-1 press. Well, in time. You did yourself right by going big to start. I had to go with what my budget allowed at the time Anyway, nice walkthrough. Well, written

[Leadfoot]

Nice job on the write up and the shirts!